Jackrabbits play four in Minneapolis

The South Dakota State University baseball team will begin its Spring Break schedule with four games Monday through Wednesday at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.
The Jackrabbits, 2-4 overall, open the week with a late-night Monday doubleheader against Waldorf College. Action is set to begin at 9:30 p.m. with a pair of seven-inning games.Waldorf, a member of NAIA and the North Star Athletic Association, is off to a 2-8 start to the season.
SDSU is then scheduled to take on Minnesota in a single game at 6 p.m. Tuesday before wrapping up the four-game slate with a 7 a.m. contest Wednesday versus Minnesota-Crookston. Games against Minnesota and Minnesota-Crookston will be nine innings.
Minnesota is 6-4 after winning two of three games over the weekend at the Dairy Queen Classic at U.S. Bank Stadium. The Golden Gophers recorded wins over Oral Roberts (4-3 in 13 innings) and Iowa (6-3), while being shut out by Hawaii (4-0).
Minnesota-Crookston will enter its matchup with the Jackrabbits with a 3-2 record, with all five games having been played indoors at U.S. Bank Stadium.
Fan seating at U.S. Bank Stadium will be located in the lower concourse (Level 2). For complete stadium information, log on to www.usbankstadium.com.

THE SERIES: South Dakota State and Waldorf will play for the fourth and fifth times in their Monday doubleheader. The Jackrabbits have won all three meetings by shutout since the two programs first met in 2006. SDSU blanked the Warriors, 8-0, at Bob Shelden Field in Brookings in 2006, then posted wins of 3-0 and 5-0 to open the 2013 season at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.
Tuesday's game against Minnesota will mark the 43rd time the Jackrabbits and Golden Gophers have met on the baseball diamond. The two squads split their two-game season series, with each team winning on its home field. Minnesota claimed a 7-3 win at Siebert Field on April 12, 2016, while the Jackrabbits closed out home action at Erv Huether Field on May 17, 2016, with a 7-6, 10-inning victory which ended on a suicide squeeze bunt by Zach Holt that scored Phil Velez.
The Wednesday matchup versus Minnesota-Crookston will be the first-ever meeting between the two programs.

PRESEASON POLL: The South Dakota State University baseball team has been picked to finish second in the 2017 Summit League race, according to a poll conducted among league coaches and announced by league officials on Feb. 9.
The Jackrabbits return six position starters from a squad that finished the 2016 season with a 22-35 overall record and fourth-place finish in the league standings with a 13-17 mark.
Defending Summit League champion Oral Roberts received five first-place votes en route to earning the top spot in the poll with 25 points. SDSU received the other first-place vote and 18 points, and was followed by North Dakota State (17), Omaha (13), Western Illinois (9) and Fort Wayne (8).
The 30-game Summit League schedule kicks off March 17, when the Jackrabbits open a three-game series at Omaha. Oral Roberts will host the four-team Summit League Baseball Championship May 24-27 at J.L. Johnson Stadium in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

LAST WEEK: The Jackrabbits went winless at the Delray Invitational in Delray Beach, Florida Feb. 24-26, losing two games each to Central Connecticut State and Maine.

SUMMIT LEAGUE HONORS FROOM: South Dakota State right-hander Ryan Froom was honored Feb. 20 as the first Summit League Pitcher of the Week for the 2017 season.
A senior from Crystal, Minnnesota, Froom hurled seven shutout innings in a 3-1 Jackrabbit victory over Chicago State Feb. 18 in Glendale, Arizona. He limited Chicago State to three hits, did not walk a batter and struck out five, including fanning the side in the top of the first inning.
Froom followed his season-opening performance with six innings of two-run baseball against Maine on Feb. 25.

BADGERING THE OPPOSITION: Freshman outfielder Landon Badger turned in an impressive opening weekend at the plate for the Jackrabbits.
A Pierre native, Badger hit .500 (4-for-8) in games against Northern Illinois and Chicago State. Three of his hits went for extra bases as he tallied two doubles as part of a three-RBI performance in the Feb. 17 season opener against Northern Illinois, and added a triple in the Feb. 18 game versus Chicago State to finish the weekend with a 1.000 slugging percentage.
In addition, Badger started both games in center field and recorded three putouts.

JOHNSON OFF TO HOT START: Senior first baseman Matt Johnson has been the Jackrabbits' top hitter through the first two weeks of the season. The Ankeny, Iowa, native is the lone SDSU player to record a hit in each of the first six games this season en route to a team-best .409 batting average and five runs batted in.
Four of Johnson's nine hits have gone for extra bases — three doubles and a home run — as he has compiled a .682 slugging percentage.
Johnson collected two hits in each of the first three games at the Delray Invitational.

RINGHOFER'S STREAK ENDS: Jackrabbit catcher Luke Ringhofer had his school-record streak of reaching base safely in 52 consecutive games come to an end in the Jackrabbits' loss to Maine on Feb. 25, when he went 0-for-4 at the plate.
Ringhofer's streak began March 4, 2016, when he recorded a hit in the series opener at Sacramento State. A junior from Cotttage Grove, Minnesota, Ringhofer had a hit in 43 games during the streak, and drew at least one base on balls in 30 contests during that same span.

FANNING THE SIDE: Three different South Dakota State pitchers struck out the side in order in an inning during the opening weekend of play.
Opening Day starter Austin Kost fanned all three batters he faced in the third inning of the Jackrabbits' Feb. 17 game against Northern Illinois.
Against Chicago State on Feb. 18, both Ryan Froom and Chris Halbur accomplished the feat. Froom struck out the side in the top of the first, while Halbur earned the save with three consecutive strikeouts in the ninth.

COACH BISHOP: Rob Bishop, who has guided college baseball teams to more than 500 victories, was named head baseball coach at South Dakota State University on Aug. 1, 2016. Bishop is the ninth head coach in program history and the fourth in the Division I era of Jackrabbit baseball.
Overall, Bishop holds a 551-326-1 record (.628 winning percentage) as a collegiate head coach, including a 2-4 mark at SDSU. He spent the previous six years at NCAA Division II member Montana State University-Billings, where he led the Yellowjackets to back-to-back Great Northwest Athletic Conference regular season titles in 2015 and 2016, attaining the program's first-ever 30-win season with a 30-20 record in 2016.
His squads also were honored as the top academic team in the GNAC each of his last three seasons.
Previously, Bishop spent 10 years at Miles City Community College in Montana, where his teams won MonDak conference championships every year. His squads also claimed five consecutive junior college region titles and a Northwest District championship in 2007 to advance to the NJCAA Division II College World Series. He also served as athletic director the last five years of his tenure at Miles City.
Bishop served as a graduate assistant at SDSU under head coach Mark Ekeland during the 1998 and 1999 seasons. In his first season as a head coach, Bishop led Huron University to the South Dakota Intercollegiate Conference title in 2000.
A 1994 graduate of Jamestown College, Bishop earned NAIA All-America honors during the 1992 and 1994 seasons as an infielder.

THE ROSTER: The 2017 SDSU baseball roster features 36 players from five different states. Of the 36 players, 15 are from South Dakota, 10 are from Minnesota and nine hail from Iowa. California and Indiana are represented by one player each.
By class, eight are seniors, 11 are juniors, six are sophomores, two are redshirt freshmen and nine are true freshmen.

A LOOK AHEAD: The Jackrabbits will conclude their Spring Break slate of games with a three-game series at returning College World Series qualifier Oklahoma State March 10-12 in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The March 10 series opener is slated for a 4 p.m. first pitch.

-GoJacks.com-

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